Amid Russian-Ukrainian War Higher Authorities Ban Instagram In Russia

Synopsis – However, the State communication of Russia has already banned Facebook in the country, and now with the ban of Instagram, it will affect around 80 million users.

Citizens of Russia are facing very harsh impositions due to the Russian-Ukrainian war, and now they have to bid goodbye to one of the most popular social media platforms Instagram. The decision has been taken by the Russian Government and the citizens are asked to remove all their photos and videos from the social media platform. 

This step was taken on Sunday when the Meta started letting the users post inappropriate content such as, “Death to the Russian invaders”. Hence, the higher Russian authorities asked people to remove their content from there. They regulated and email messages in the country from the state communication which regulated the order to move all the photos and videos from Instagram before its application gets completely shut down. 

The message also encouraged the users to switch to the country’s own “competitive internet platform”. 

Although, Meta, the parent company of Instagram and Facebook said that they have done changes in the hate speech policy which is applied to Ukraine in compliance with Russia’s 24 February invasion. The company also said that stopping Ukraine from “expressing their resistance and fury at the invading military forces,” would be wrong. 

But as per the Russian state communications regulator, Roskomnadzor it is a wrong thing to do, and banning Instagram is their way to oppose Meta’s decision of letting people post violence against Russia on Instagram and Facebook. Also, now the authorities in Russia have charged criminal investigation against Meta on Friday and even asked them to give a title of “extremist organization. However, the State communication of Russia has already banned Facebook in the country, and now with the ban of Instagram, it will affect around 80 million users. 

The Instagram head confirmed the blocking of 80 million accounts in response to imposed restriction on the use of Instagram in Russia. After regulating the message Roskomnadzor described the decision and said, 

“We need to ensure the psychological health of citizens, especially children, and adolescents, to protect them from harassment and insults online.”

Besides this, according to the report, the Russian Government has already ended the opposition-oriented radio and television networks in the country. All the television or radio shows which played anything against Russia are banned within the country and all this is being done in order to control the ongoing situation of war. 

Other than these impositions which are done by the Russian Government themselves, other countries have already imposed heavy restrictions on the country. Many companies in Moscow have been levied with restrictions and many sectors have moved their businesses from Russia. 

Although, the popular Russian Instagrammers expressed displeasure on the decision of banning Instagram in the country. 

Oksana Samoylova a Russian social media influencer posted in his Telegram post, “You’ll soon meet my alter-ego,” he also added, “Not really my alter-ego, actually, you’ll just get to know me much closer, because there I can be much, much more open.”